Playboy's 20Q: Greg Kinnear

Greg Kinnear, a native of Logansport, Indiana, likes to keep his distance from the film community. Some of that may have to do with his itinerant upbringing. His father's work with the State Department turned the family into nomads who lived in Washington, D.C., Beirut and Athens. While attending high school in Athens, Kinnear enjoyed his first broadcast experience, hosting School Daze With Greg Kinnear on Armed Forces Radio. After graduating, he moved back to the U.S. and earned a broadcast journalism degree from the University of Arizona.

E Entertainment Television received one of Kinnear's audition tapes and signed him to host Talk Soup, where he provided caustic commentary on talk-show clips. The series earned Kinnear an Emmy Award and a cult following. NBC was intrigued with his hosting abilities and, upon Bob Costas' departure, moved Kinnear into the late-night show Later With Greg Kinnear. His stint lasted a few seasons before director Sydney Pollack cast Kinnear in his feature-film debut opposite Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond in the remake of Sabrina.

Kinnear established himself with his Academy Award–nominated supporting role opposite Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in James L. Brooks' As Good As It Gets. He then co-starred in the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan success You've Got Mail. Kinnear starred opposite Cate Blanchett in the supernatural thriller The Gift, and with Renée Zellweger in Neil LaBute's Nurse Betty. Further diversifying his résumé, Kinnear took a co-starring role opposite Mel Gibson in the Vietnam war film We Were Soldiers. The actor rounds out 2002 starring in Paul Schrader's male sexuality study Auto Focus, playing Bob Crane, the star of Hogan's Heroes.

Robert Crane (who is, in fact, Bob Crane's son) caught up with the life-embracing Kinnear at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica. He reports: "Kinnear is sitting atop the world. He has fame, money, looks, a beautiful English wife and good press buzz on his performance in Auto Focus. Damn. This is as good as it gets."

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[Q] Playboy: One of the top FAQs at Indiana tourist information booths is "How do I get the hell out of here?" Does one ever return?

[A] Kinnear: This one likely will not, but some do. I have great memories of it. I was there until I was nine. It's a great place to grow up. It is beautiful country, a little on the flat side. There seems to be an excess of corn, but I felt safe there. That's quite a commodity these days.

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[Q] Playboy: When was the last time you were back?

[A] Kinnear: I took my wife recently. We were flying from the East Coast back to Los Angeles and the plane stopped in Chicago for a changeover. I said, "Let's grab our bags and hang for a few days." An advantage of being an actor is when you're not working, you can do stuff like that. We rented a Ford Taurus and drove down to a lake I used to go to when I was a kid, Lake Wawasee. I took her to my old house, which was actually for sale. It probably still is. I signed the register, trying to encourage people to buy it, but the last that I heard it was still on the market. It is a small town. A lot of my old neighbors came out of their houses. "Oh, you're the Kinnear kid. How are Susie and Ed?" They picked right up from when I left in 1972.

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[Q] Playboy: Define Hoosier.

[A] Kinnear: I think the word was some sort of term meaning hillbilly many years ago, but I would like to think that we've grown out of using that definition and are employing something more appreciative. It's strange for me to talk like I'm the spokesman for the state of Indiana. I was there for all of nine years, and for the first five of them I was drooling. It's not necessarily my place, but the people there are very passionate about sports and keeping life simple. Basketball and keeping life simple define a Hoosier effectively. I'm thinking of all the horrible letters I'll be getting. "What the hell do you mean, simple? You left when you were nine." People love to kill the Midwest. It can be a fairly cynical country when you get on the coasts. Anywhere on the left or right, they tend to look on that middle portion as an odd place that conjures up images of the movie Children of the Corn. It's not like that. Today, people are reassessing that small-town-America thing we used to smirk at. Maybe I should be a spokesman for Indiana.

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[Q] Playboy: Bobby Knight, Dan Quayle, John Mellencamp, David Letterman. Name the other proud sons of Indiana.

[A] Kinnear: James Dean. Letterman asked me that question one time on his show. It was the most horrifying moment of my life. He asked, "Now, who else? What other great historical figures are from Indiana?" I still have the tape. You can see little beads of sweat forming on my brow. I didn't know. I beg anyone who is reading this to list all of the great figures from their state.

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[Q] Playboy: Describe your childhood in Beirut.

[A] Kinnear: We arrived in 1975. We were in Virginia for three years before that and were completely unprepared to hop into a taxicab and drive through the PLO camps to get to downtown Beirut. My father kept us in a hotel for a few months until we moved into a residence. It started great, like a storybook. The weather was beautiful. You could ski and surf in the same day. Wonderful, incredible people. The Lebanese are good-spirited, kind, completely the opposite (continued on page 172)Greg Kinnear(continued from page 161) of the general interpretation of anybody from that part of the world. It was an extraordinary place. A short time after we arrived, the acting American ambassador was assassinated. A bullet in the head. He was found in a burlap bag washed up on the beach with his bodyguard. That started a series of kidnappings, including some Americans. Nobody had done that before. The fighting would start in the late afternoon. As soon as the sun went down you would hear the crackle of machine-gun fire. It would move into heavier artillery at night. We would close all the shutters in our house, gather around a candle and listen to the BBC. It sounds horrifying, but at that age, I was like the kid in Hope and Glory—"Wow. These are real bullets. This is kind of fun." I actually got shot at one day. There was a street fair every Saturday, with guys and their fruit carts. I was walking across the street to see a buddy of mine. By the time I got halfway across, there were apples all over the ground. At one end of the street there were a couple of guys coming with guns, and another group at the other end. Firing started. I saved a few people that day. Just kidding. I ran to the other side like the spineless coward I am, and then it passed and things were Ok. It was intense.

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[Q] Playboy: Your father was a State Department trade rep. Spook, right?

[A] Kinnear: Yes. I will give you my stock answer, which is that my brothers and I get around the table every holiday and badger him endlessly about that. If he was a spook, I will say he was the greatest spook the country has ever had. His office was the regional trade and development office, which was set up to help promote imports and exports from Middle Eastern countries to the U.S. It was kind of a liaison office.

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[Q] Playboy: Some parents argue that travel is disruptive to children. Is this true?

[A] Kinnear: I guess it is. I know so many actors and people in this business who come from a similar background. I'm convinced that it's the need to fit in and redefine yourself quickly that causes a lot of people to end up in Hollywood, for better or for worse. For me, it was the greatest experience I've ever had. I am convinced I would be in prison by now if I had stayed in Indiana. I don't think I would have fit into the typical American high school experience. I was fortunate to have ended up in Greece for high school. It was phenomenal. All my best friends to this day are from there.

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[Q] Playboy: As a U.S. citizen who has lived abroad, are you less xenophobic?

[A] Kinnear: No question about it. The best part of that experience was that it gave me the ability to see America as part of the world, as opposed to the world. I am grateful for that because obviously on September 11 it changed for all of us, and a lot of people who ignored international affairs have opened their eyes. Not that I could have foreseen anything that has taken place, but certainly, with my upbringing, I was aware of a lot going on. I have been a CNN junkie since I was 17.

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[Q] Playboy: Druze women are among the most beautiful in the world. Were you old enough to appreciate them while you were in Lebanon?

[A] Kinnear: I was just trying to land a French kiss for the first few years there, so I don't know how much I was into beauty. You go to any of the Greek islands, particularly at that time, and you get to understand beautiful women very quickly. It was a good place for an adolescent red-blooded American boy to be. It was a good place to become aware, and I appreciated it. We moved there when I was 12 and left when I was 18, so that was my adolescence. Those are the years you get your training for women. I have good stories and bad stories like every other guy. Ok, maybe a few more bad stories.

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[Q] Playboy: How did you prepare for the explicit scenes in Auto Focus? Was there a Thighmaster in your trailer?

[A] Kinnear: There should have been, because I put on some weight to play Bob [Crane]. He was a little softer than I am around the face and the sides. Now I'm desperately in need of a Thighmaster. While I was doing the movie it was the opposite. No push-ups before scenes for me. It was basically hit the craft service table about 10 minutes before doing anything questionable.

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[Q] Playboy: You're known as being a nice guy in Hollywood. Have you disqualified yourself from playing a really dark character?

[A] Kinnear: I'm a prick. Sashimi-ing a guy's stomach? I can't do that. Your opportunities to do those types of roles depend on people's impressions—right or wrong—about you. As an actor, there are few places I'm not interested in exploring. How far audiences will let you go provides limitations. It is just a matter of finding the right thing. I'll give you an example: Jack Nicholson in The Shining. You see him in that movie and associate him with a super-dark character. I found his character oddly charming. You put down the ax, and the guy is somebody you want to have dinner with. I would welcome acting opportunities in that vein. A lot of times you see actors playing roles that feel like they are trying to say, "Look where I can go. Look how crazy I am." That is not interesting to me. What is interesting is creating real characters, human characters. I bring up Jack because that was a guy we believed. A really interesting dark character is, above all else, somebody you have to believe. There is just as much charm and inspiration behind a guy with a hatchet as there is in any other character. It's balance.

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[Q] Playboy: In Auto Focus you wear the jacket that was worn by Frank Sinatra in Von Ryan's Express and by Bob Crane in Hogan's Heroes. If that jacket could talk, would it say, "Ring-a-ding-ding" or "Colonel Klink"?

[A] Kinnear: After Auto Focus, it has a few other things it wants to say—some not fit for print. I have to go with Colonel Klink on that one. As you might understand, I am a little partial to the jacket. It fit like a glove and I'll be the first to bid on it when it's put up for auction on eBay. Give me 24 hours' notice.

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[Q] Playboy: You worked with Garry Shandling in What Planet Are You From?, Love Affair and Town and Country. Should Shandling say no the next time Warren Beatty calls?

[A] Kinnear: Garry is a really good friend of mine. He is not only an incredible actor, but he's a good person, too. I find Garry to be one of the funniest SOBs—Wait, I have to retract that; it's the wrong term for Garry. He is one of the funniest guys I have ever met. What Planet Are You From, Part 111 We'll see. Stay tuned.

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[Q] Playboy: We recently declared Arizona State University the number one party school in the country. Care to defend University of Arizona's status?

[A] Kinnear: Until your Playboy editors have lived in the Alpha Pi dorm for six months, I don't want to hear that shit again. I believe the debauchery going on 100 miles south of Tempe is just as impressive as what's happening in the middle of the state, if not more so. I still have the occasional hangover to prove it. Besides, there is a lot of animosity between U of A and ASU whenever you do those Girls of features. The women of U of A blow the doors off the parking-lot scene you have up north

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[Q] Playboy: Please defend for us the rigorous and challenging broadcast-journalism department.

[A] Kinnear: Shortly after I graduated they closed it down. That's my legacy. Now they call it the communications department or something. When I was there it actually was not a bad school. The journalism department at U of A was one of the best in the country. The radio and television department was OK, though it didn't offer nearly as much help as a film school like USC or UCLA. It got you in and got you out for the hat.

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[Q] Playboy: Are roles denied to Greg that are offered to Gregory?

[A] Kinnear: If I went by Gregory I would have a different life today. I would be sipping champagne in a hot tub if I were Gregory. Unfortunately, I'm drinking tea, watching the birds fly by. It never even occurred to me to go with Gregory. That name sounds too loud for me. It sounds too imposing and I never was. Although I am legally Gregory, the only time I ever heard the name Gregory was when I was in huge trouble. It usually came from my mom, who would also insert my middle name, which is Buck, and throw in my last name, Kinnear, just so there was no question about who she was addressing.

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[Q] Playboy: Under what circumstances does speaking Greek come in handy?

[A] Kinnear: When I travel to Greece, and when I go to a Greek restaurant. When I go to Taverna Tony's in Malibu it tends to procure a better table and you don't have to say a lot. Truthfully, I was never that great at it. I was going to take Greek while I was living there. We didn't know how long we were going to be there. My mom said, "You should take French. It is a beautiful language. It is an international language, a language of love." I was easily convinced, so you basically had a displaced American coming from Lebanon, living in Greece, studying French. How screwed was I? I never even had a chance. At the end of the day, I got six words from 14 different languages.

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[Q] Playboy: What can be said in all its fullness only in Greek—and to whom do you say it?

[A] Kinnear: There is a phrase you would say to someone you truly despise and are very angry with in a moment of passion. It is a nice little run of bad words. Truthfully I am not even sure what it means, but I know it will get you into a good fist-fight. I know malaka means masturbator. I don't know beyond that.

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[Q] Playboy: Describe the challenges of being a Later talk-show host.

[A] Kinnear: The frustrating part of it is there are nights when you hit it out of the park and it doesn't make a blip on the ratings screen. And on nights when you might as well run color bars, you get a bump in the ratings. By the time you get to 1:35 in the morning, as Tom Snyder put it, "You get your smokers and your tokers."

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[Q] Playboy: Which forms of music are not conducive to a romantic evening?

[A] Kinnear: I stay away from Twisted Sister if I'm trying to get down. Loverboy is something you want to stay away from if you're talking about romance: Working for the Weekend will kill you on a Friday night if you're trying to get hot and heavy. I saw Loverboy in concert in college. I don't know how I got roped into that. Let me go on record saying I did not buy tickets to a Loverboy concert. I got free tickets to a Journey concert—and Journey was happening. Loverboy opened for Journey. I thought those guys were going to be taken out and beaten senseless before they got through the first song. I don't know who booked this, but it was one of the great mistakes in the history of concerts.